Hypertension describes a symptom of several disease entities, both of known and unknown etiology, the elevated blood pressure being the measurement indicating its presence. A persistently elevated blood pressure is considered a serious symptom. High blood pressure can be temporary or can result from known causes such as kidney or artery disease. While some types of hypertension respond only to surgery and in others sedatives may comprise the sole therapy, most forms of hypertension are treated by means of chemotherapy. Chemical entities capable of lowering blood pressure in mammals such as the antihypertensive agents provided by the present invention, are consequently highly desirable.
Untreated hypertension produces risk of cardiovascular complications such as strokes, myocardial infarction and the like which lower the quality of life and life expectancy, whereas drug therapy can significantly improve the longevity of the hypertensive population.